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As far as my mother’s [Etela Weit] family goes, I don’t know as much about them. My mother was born in what is today Poland, not far from the town of Tarnow there’s this village that’s called Gruszow Wielki. How she got to Slovakia and how she met my father, I don’t know.
When she was already married, she would visit her parents in Poland. When I was a small boy she also took me along with her. I was there twice on a visit. My mother told me about this one thing that happened to her at the border. I was still a baby, and at the border, when she was taking care of passport matters, she put me down one some woodpile that was there. And while she was taking care of the passport paperwork, I suddenly began crying, and the people that were there and saw me began shouting that someone had forgotten their child there. My mother was completely flustered by it.
I remember my Polish grandparents only dimly. Grandpa was named Juda Kohane and was a kohanite [kohenim: members of the tribe of Levi, descendants of Aaron. Priestly origins are inherited from the father. Most of the kohenim’s responsibilities ceased after the destruction of the Temple, however several of them have survived to this day. For example, a kohen is the first to be called to read from the Torah – Editor’s note]. This means that he was of priestly descent. I don’t remember the name of his wife, my grandmother, any more. I unfortunately don’t know anything else about these grandparents. I never got to know them very well. I don’t think that my mother had any siblings, as she never mentioned any.
When she was already married, she would visit her parents in Poland. When I was a small boy she also took me along with her. I was there twice on a visit. My mother told me about this one thing that happened to her at the border. I was still a baby, and at the border, when she was taking care of passport matters, she put me down one some woodpile that was there. And while she was taking care of the passport paperwork, I suddenly began crying, and the people that were there and saw me began shouting that someone had forgotten their child there. My mother was completely flustered by it.
I remember my Polish grandparents only dimly. Grandpa was named Juda Kohane and was a kohanite [kohenim: members of the tribe of Levi, descendants of Aaron. Priestly origins are inherited from the father. Most of the kohenim’s responsibilities ceased after the destruction of the Temple, however several of them have survived to this day. For example, a kohen is the first to be called to read from the Torah – Editor’s note]. This means that he was of priestly descent. I don’t remember the name of his wife, my grandmother, any more. I unfortunately don’t know anything else about these grandparents. I never got to know them very well. I don’t think that my mother had any siblings, as she never mentioned any.
Location
Slovakia
Interview
Jozef W.